India is passing through her most critical - perhaps dangerous - times. World's largest Democracy, India has today become the largest cesspool of official corruption, crime, political opportunism and caste/communal animosities. Political Parties are now Family Corporates, Bureaucracy their franchisee and crony capitalists their partners as they embark upon plundering the Nation together. Time for India to wake up and restart! One Anna or Kejriwal is not enough - Karan Kharb

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Monday, April 22, 2013

What ails Veterans?

(Karan Kharb)

(Note: Some of the suggestions here are against my own emotions. To be of value, our judgement must be based on sound rationale and logic, not emotions).

Issues
like ‘One Rank One Pension’ (OROP), rank pay, and persistent denial of their
dues in a murky environment of bureaucratic machinations have left the Veterans
distraught. What is even more frustrating is that wherever the judgements given
by the Armed Forces Tribunal are in favour of the soldiers – serving or
retired, the government has either ignored compliance or gone in appeal thereby
denying justice to the veterans and/or serving soldiers. In such a regime the
problem is not these ‘issues’, it is the invisible issue of a serious
‘disconnect’ that needs to be addressed urgently.

At the
Veterans’ Seminar held at the imposing Manekshaw Centre in Delhi Cantt on 17
Apr 2013, the Army Chief, Gen Bikram Singh was candid, forthright and appeared genuinely
concerned about the problem and, as he assured us all there, he is actively
pursuing the matter in a soldierly style without seeking publicity. Veterans
could become a force multiplier for the Chiefs to lend support to their Cause
more effectively. We also need to understand that it would be highly
inappropriate for any Service Chief to associate himself in any manner with ESM
organisations with political overtones and record of uncivil, un-soldierly
misdemeanours.

Here are
some suggestions on how Veterans can garner support and respect for their Cause
from our Chiefs and most parts of our society, government and judiciary.

Need for a Paradigm
Shift.

Some harsh realities
and hard facts are:-

(a)In Democracy, Military shall take orders from the Civilian Authority.
Politicians, no doubt, constitute the Government but ‘governance’ is carried
out through ‘Civil Services’.

(b)Unfortunately – sorry, perhaps ‘fortunately’ – neither the politicians
nor the bureaucrats in our country have much knowledge about military capabilities,
limitations and requirements. This makes the Service Chiefs truly indispensable
in matters of national defence and security. There is a need to foster
goodwill, trust and cooperation to mitigate and iron out distrust, rivalry and
confrontation at all levels of civil-military relations. Measures could be
devised to plug in this vacant space of ignorance and be counted.

(c)There is no point debating that ‘civilian control’ implies ‘political
and not bureaucratic’ in a scenario where the whole nation cries hoarse against
politicians meddling with the police and civil administration. Perhaps blurred
lines could come handy for a sagacious military leadership to create an
appropriate working environment that will turn confrontation into cooperation.

Criticism pays,
Emotion betrays.

Objective
criticism backed by logic, reasoning and irrefutable evidence is an art and armour
of the civilised. Intemperate, uncivil, abusive language and emotional
outbursts are the traits and credentials of the lowly – eg, street urchins, criminals
and prostitutes. Flurry of mails loaded with expletives, each dirtier than the
other, might be giving orgasmic pleasure but deflates the punch in our argument
besides showing us in poor light.

Then
there are some very well meaning, respectable veterans too who proudly flaunt
their audaciousness in writing impolitely to the President, Ministers and
Editors of Newspapers and circulating them by mass mailing. Firstly, such
communications are never put up to the addressed dignitaries for these very
reasons.Secondly, even when such
communication is put up, its crunch contents are first highlighted and
commented upon in an accompanying Minute by a Babu already packed with
hostile attitude against the veteran class. Our angry/emotional outbursts thus
come handy to him for such highlighting and adverse comments/recommendations.

Image, Esteem, Honour,
Izzet

Our image
is what the mirror shows; and I am proud ours is still the most loved and
admired in our society despite our own doings in tarnishing it in the recent
years. Embellishments like image, honour, esteem, izzet et al were never
showered upon us by any Government. No power on the Earth, no angel from the
Heavens can bestow these intangibles upon us. Nowhere is ‘honour’ served on
plate. There is neither a ‘giver’ nor ‘usurper’ in such a dispensation unless
we are confusing ‘honour’ with the material largesse. Our ancestors earned izzet
and honour by sacrificing, abiding discipline, humility and self-denial in conduct.
We have brought ourselves down by concentrating only around three of us – I, me
and mine.

The most
talked about topics among the serving officers are postings, promotion boards,
ACRs, course grading; or golf, single malts and visits, if it is huddle of
seniors. As for the veterans, each RWA
meeting, Club AGM ends up in verbal duels, accusations and humiliating
name-calling with scant respect for the elder and senior. And lo, we demand izzet from the
Government and the Public!

Strategy needs Change

Perhaps we
have created confusion in the public mind by mixing up our image with others in
protesting, slogan shouting and rallying much in the same manner as do our
politicians and quota demanding caste/clan leaders. The fact that no veterans
rally has been huge enough to have coercive effect on the political establishment
proves that the idea of street-shouting has not found many takers in our own
camaraderie. Nor did the ‘medal depositing’ ritual evoke any response. And why
would it? What do we mean by ‘depositing’? The intent of the
depositor was implicit: ‘I am returning only this metal, not the benefits
that came with it.’ The whole exercise became an object of ridicule.

We need
to review our strategy. Some ideas are here, more are needed from fertile
brains of many strategists among us:-

(a)Broaden the Cause by espousing larger public issues to enlist willing
support of more sections of the society. Today’s soldier is tomorrow’s
veteran.Soldiers draw motivation from
their elders and, therefore, problems of the veterans are bound to affect fighting
efficiency of the Forces.

(b)Raise the tempo of the debate enlisting support from outside as well in
a regime where noise and number matters more than anything else.

(c)Shielding the ‘Military’ from the civilian public in name of security
has harmed us all. The civilian view of the Army is limited to what they see at
the Republic Day parade besides a skewed perception of ‘subsidised’ groceries,
free rations and ‘unlimited, cheap’ foreign liquor. If only they knew about what
deprivations and hazards we go through! They need to know their Military’s
capabilities, requirements, hazardous operating environments in areas where no
camera teams dare shoot.

(d)Unite in Solidarity.We are
divided in two ways. One, there are over 200 Ex-Servicemen organisations each claiming
to be more genuine than the other and thus creating more fissures and
animosities through internecine wrangles. Two, these are all headed by officers
– perhaps inspired by our own culture of rank based command structure in the
service. This model has disillusioned a larger and more crucial number in our
strength – our retired JCOs/OR. We need to integrate them by according due
respect and concern to them.

(e)Let others talk about us! Imagine the impact, credibility and appeal of
veterans’ issues being raised by civilians rather than us seeking for
ourselves. Of course, this will have to be planned and orchestrated diligently from
behind the scene.

(f)Integrate PMFs and those retired bureaucrats who are above the
‘civil-military rivalry.’ Let us be honest, there are some very honest and
dedicated IAS officers who are fighting their lonely battles and going through
hell in their own system. We must invite and honour such stalwarts in the
otherwise corrupt and callous system.

(g)Lastly, a point of caution: the farther we remain from ‘politics’, the
better it is. Our strength of 2.3
million veterans deeply divided in their political leanings and widely dispersed
all over make a tiny insignificant entity dissolved in a milieu of 1.2 billion.
Unlike other regional groupings, we are not a ‘constituency’ that could make a
difference even regionally. Only in Punjab and Haryana they might help in
achieving minor swings provided they unite for voting - which is highly
unlikely though.

‘The Indian
Ex-Services League’ (IESL)

Founded
by our most adored heroes like Gen KS Thimayya, DSO and Field Marshal KM
Cariappa, OBE, the IESL is the oldest Ex-Servicemen organisation officially
recognised by the Government of India. It is also the most organised and
headquartered in dignified premises in at 9, Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New
Delhi with State units in all states giving it a pan India reach. Welfare of
ex-servicemen and all related issues like OROP, Rank Pay, Rehabilitation,
Status etc could be better planned, orchestrated and presented to receptive government
authorities if all of us were to rally around and lend support to the League which
enjoys unquestioned credibility and appeal all over.

Presently,
Lt Gen Balbir Singh Yadav (Retd) is the President of IESL. I have known him as a
competent and daring leader, a man of frugal habits, unimpeachable integrity, a
teetotaller, most affable and selflessly dedicated to the Cause of veterans and
war widows. Also, he has never been involved in any controversy and continues
to command universal respect even after retirement.

Let me
also declare here that I am neither a member of the IESL Governing Council nor
in any way an interested party in the Organisation’s affairs. It is purely my own
assessment from a neutral standpoint as a Veteran that rallying around with an
organisation like IESL might enable us to present and pursue our case better in
courts, government and media.

1 comment:

DEAR SIR1.OUR GENERALS HAVE RUINED ARMY FOR THEIR PERSONAL GAINS2. ARE U SHOCKED .I BELIEVE YES.SEE IN ARMY ONLY A] EX COAS JJ SINGH: WHEN CASE OF RANK PAY WAS RAKED .HE WAS THE ONE HE PUT HIS FOOT DOWN .SAYING RANK PAY HAS NOT BEEN CLAIMED, SO IT CANNOT BE GIVEN OR WORDS TO THAT EFFECT. SEE LEVEL OF FOOLING HIMSELF & HARMING ARMY TO GET PLUM POSTING OF GUV AFTER RETIREMENT. THE GENERAL MUST BE AWARE THAT PAY IS NEVER CLAIMED . HE HAS PUT EVERYONE IN SPIN FOR HIS PERSONAL RISE. I AM SURE HE TOO MUST HAVE GOT RANK PAY ARREARS BY NOW.A SHAMELESS ACT.B] EARLIER THERE WAS ONE IG POLICE IN COMBINED HARYANA+UT+PUNJAB. IN EX COAS MALHOTRA POLICE WENT ONE RANK UP. NEITHER HE UP GRADED ARMY NOR HE PUT HIS FOOT DOWN FOR POLICE. SO IN AID TO CIVIL POWER ARMY OFFICER WENT DOWN IN RANK STRUCTURE.NOW SEE AMOUNT OF DGP+IGP FLOATING IN THESE PLACESC] IN 6th CPC GOVT WAS GIVING NFU STATUS TO US.NAVY & AIR FORCE WERE WILLING BUT ARMY DENIED. TO DATE A TIME SCALE IAS/IPS OFFICER GETS PENSION OF Lt Gen. MOREOVER THERE IS COMMAND & CONTROL PROBLEM NOW A CWE IS SENIOR TO MAJ GEND]OUR ACR SYSTEM ALLOWS WRONG ONE TO COME UP. PEN PICTURE HAS NO MEANING WHICH 95% OFFICER MAY NOT KNOW. IT IS NUMERIC RATING WHICH MATTERS . AN EXCELLENT COMMAND WORD IN PEN PICTURE WILL NOT MAKE UP IF AT ONE ODD PLACE 7 REMARKS ARE GIVEN IN QUALITY . ALTHOUGH 7/8 ARE NOT PROPERLY DEMARCATED [ 7 OR 8 HAVE EQUALITY TO FOOL THE RECEIVER]E] CORRUPT & GOOD CHAMACHA'S MAKE UPF]THERE ARE 2 PAY BANDS FOR OFFICER'S PAY.THERE ARE 2 BAND FOR ACCN .BUT FOR COMFORTS LIKE CANTEEN * OTHERS THERE ARE SO MANY BANDS. I] HONY Lt TO COL. CO HAS BEEN CLUBBED WITH HIS JCO'S . WHERE IS STATUS LEVEL FOR BULK OF OFFICERII] BRIG ANOTHER BANDIII]MAJ GEN ANOTHER BANDIV] Lt GEN ANOTHER BANDV] COAS ANOTHER BAND UNLIMITED LIQOUR. HEIGHT OF GREEDINESS.DO NOT YOU SEE A MOCKERY OF SYSTEM WITHIN US. HAVE ONLY TWO BANDS. RED TAPE BELOW & RED TAPE. MORE INTERSETED FOR DATE OF BIRTH ISSUE EX COASG] ALWAYS START CORRECTION FROM HOME ONLY THEN UNITED ACTION AS U DESIRE CAN START.FIRST CLEAN ON MESSH] 50% MERGER DA AS ON 1/1/2006. NONE OF CHIEF HAS PUT DOWN FOOT. WHEN SERVING GOT ALL ALLOWNCES ENHANCED WHY NOT MERGER OF DA WAS TAKEN WHICH IS MOTHER OF ALL ALLOWANCESK]DUE TO BABUS WRONG ACTIONS OUR PAY/PENSION IS WRONGLY BEEN GIVEN. 13 COURTS INCL SC HAS GIVEN RULING TO PAY SUM OF[ BASIC+GRADE PAY+MSP] WEF FROM 1/1/2006. BUT IT IS LIKELY TO BE PAID FROM WEF 24/9/2012. NO ONE HAS PUT FOOT DOWN & AGAIN WE ARE BACK IN COURT NOW 2. CHANGE IS IN NOT FAR WAY . DEMOCRACY HAS TO GO AS IT IS ALMOST FAILED & CORRUPTION IS ON ON IT'S PEAK. ARISTOTLE THEORY OF GOVT CHANGE WILL TAKE INTO EFFECT

Contributors

Welcome to People Power

People are the Nation. Let's do everything in our power to multiply and build up 'People Power'. We must force the Government to rid the system of corruption and callousness. The least we can do is to expose and humiliate the corrupt officials, self-serving politicians, Vadra-DLF or Gadkari type of business culture, and the divisive forces destroying public goodwill in the name of caste, religion and region.

Fortunately, all these evils are not too many. Nor are they too brave. Anna, Ramdev and Kejriwal have exposed how timidly and stupidly the corrupt react. All evil is concentrated in a few hands at the top from where the fountain of corruption flows downwards. This muck, therefore, cannot be cleaned up from bottom upwards. The clean up has to start from the top!